Warren Buffett's Best Pop Culture Cameos

Warren Buffett's Best Pop Culture Cameos

Tomorrow night's season finale of
The Office
is going to be lousy with guest stars: Ricky Gervais, WillArnett, Jim Carrey, Ray Romano, James Spader, and Catherine Tate are all set tovie for the position
recentlyvacated by one Michael Scott
. Last week,
Variety
reported that there would be one more famous name on thelist of wannabe branch managers:
Warren Buffett, theavuncular Oracle of Omaha
(and the
third most powerful old person in America
,per
Slate
'smost recent "80 over 80" list). But this is far from the billionaire's first notablecameo. Herewith, a scientifically ranked list of the tycoon's greatest popculture appearances.

#5:
As himself in 2010's
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.

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Buffett was just one of
manyfinancial types to guest in the film
, such as
Mad Money
's Jim Cramer, hedge fund manager James Chanos, andeconomist (and
Slate
contributor
) Nouriel Roubini. So his appearance
—
whilean impressive casting coup
—
doesn't have quite the same delightful air of randomnessas the other entries on this list.

The creaky animation in this edutainment series is completelyoutclassed by
the celebrityvoice talent
—
Walter Cronkite has a recurring role as Ben Franklin
—
butBuffett's impish charm manages to shine through his stilted avatar.

In this animated Web series (which is
sooncoming to television
), "the world's most famous investor" teaches a multicultural gang of kids how to be more excellent capitalists... and people. (Sample lessons: "Get a mentor." "Try new things." "Never cut corners.") The theme song has colonized my brain.

# 2: As himself on
All My Children
.

Buffett first appeared on the soap in a four-minute segmentin 1991, when he was chairman of Salomon Brothers; along with Thomas Murphy,chairman of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., he advised Erica Kane
—
played by the indomitableSusan Lucci
—
on how to run her cosmetics business. (Two years earlier, the twoexecs, who are friends with
AMC
'screator,
playedwaiters on another of her soaps,
Loving
,but they were not entrusted with any lines.)

Seventeen years later, when Kane was thrown in prison for
"unintentional"insider trading
, he came to the Pine Valley vixen's aid once again. Haven'tyou, too, watched Buffett on
Charlie Rose
and felt a deep-welling urge to shriek, "Didn't I tell you how handsome he is,Erica! I mean look at this
physique
—
andthe chiseled features!" Sadly, Mr. Buffett does not sell his closing joke verywell.

Every year, Geico employees put together a video for theirannual meeting; Buffett
—
whose Berkshire Hathaway owns the insurance company
—
has appearedin several of them. (In one, he
playeda hobo
.) We can't imagine any of those past outings
—
or, for that matter,anything, period
—
being more wonderful than this power ballad, which featuresBuffett shuffling back and forth in a bandanna, leather jacket, and fake tatsleeves, grumbling into a microphone. Warren Buffett, you bring out the best inme.